Eternal Light | Regulus Black

Fifth year at Hogwarts

I got out of bed early, to go to the owlery before breakfast. I'd tried getting Regulus up too, but he mumbled about meeting me at the great hall.

I wore a high neck shirt under my school blouse, since Regulus's teeth marks were prominent on the crook of my neck and over my chest.

I skipped half of the steps, in a rush to get to the breakfast. I knew there'd be cake since it was a Saturday. And I wanted to see just how shitty Theo and Abraxas looked after their last night's bender.

Walburga had sent me a letter, and Sirius too. I left Sirius's letter onto the owl's other leg and only grabbed mine.

I read it through once,

Twice,

A third time.

The letter set into flames, burning into nothing in a moment, my hands untouched by my sudden outburst of magic.

The words of the letter engraved into my mind, scarred there so I wouldn't forget. The hollowness consumed me as I took shallow breaths while walking down the stairs.

I can never get everything.

Zara,

I'm unfortunately having to inform you that from the Easter Holiday on, you'll be under your Uncle's custody. He has arranged to have you live in the Avery Mansion and has the intention of making it permanent.

Keep your head up,

Bring him hell,

Walburga Black

My friends were sitting by the long table, chattering as Theo kept his head buried between his hands. Marvel had his arm lazily resting on Ruby's back.

I had been right, there was cake. They had even put up a plate for me ready, across Regulus like always. A big slice of chocolate cake on top.

I stared at the slice, not saying anything to them, not even registering that they were there. They hadn't noticed though, too busy stuffing food down their throats and talking about who was the most embarrasing last night.

I'd stared at the plate for too long, the rims of my eyes started to sting. My nails digging into my palm as I held a fork. The fork started to tremble along with my hand, and I started staring at it insted, as if to stop if from moving just by looking at it.

"Zara!" Sirius voice sounded distressed as he came fast stepped over to our table. He stopped right next to Regulus, who was looking at the two of us in turns.

"I just heard, my mother wrote about it in the letter. This is a disaster, he can't do that can he? Aren't there some laws or something to prevent this from happening," he ranted furiously.

My friends had grown quiet, looking at me, but I was still looking down, too busy to make sure I was still breathing.

"What are you on about?" Regulus snapped, slightly annoyed.

"Don't you know?" Sirius asked flaggerblastered.
"Zacharias is taking over her custody. She'll have to live with him starting on Easter Holiday. Then she said we'll have to go home for the holiday, we can't stay at school, even if Zara's not coming with us," he said defeated, looking at me, waiting for a reaction.

The silence was overwhelming, several sets of eyes burning a hole in my skull.

The chocolate cake looked delicious, such a shame it has to go to waste.

But this was too much to stuff down. I couldn't bury this kind of pain even under thousands of pounds worth of bricks.

Not even with tens of whole chocolate cakes.